"Every second respondent believes that Ukraine will sooner or later become a member of the European Union: 25.6 percent believe it will happen in the next five-ten years and almost as many, 24.7 percent, [think it will happen] in a more distant future, in 15-20 years," a press release on the poll's results said.
Almost a third of the Ukrainians do not believe that the country will join the European Union, the survey's findings showed.
More than half of the survey participants stated that their attitude to the European Union had not changed, while 27.7 percent said it had become worse and for 11.2 it had improved.
The polling organization also noted that the Ukrainians had become more pessimistic, compared to the results of the May poll, when 32.9 respondents thought Ukraine would join the European Union within 5-10 years and only 24.6 percent believed that Ukraine would never join the bloc.
The EU-Ukraine dialogue on visa liberalization was launched in 2008, while in November 2010 the European Union proposed Kiev an action plan for granting visa-free regime. The European Commission confirmed that Ukraine met all necessary conditions in December 2015. According to diplomatic sources, Ukraine could be granted visa-free regime in early spring of 2017.
In 2014, mass protests erupted in Ukraine after then-President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union. The government of Yanukovych was toppled after months of protests in Kiev's landmark Maidan square.
